A blog named for specious reasoning in interpreting the Scriptures ("Well, Leviticus says you can't eat shellfish..."). We've sought to help the good folk of the ELCA and her closest partners to be not deceived by the Confusionists (for whom the clear window of Scriptures, Creed, and Confessions is but a dim mirror) at the helm.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

How preoccupation with pronouns led to trifling with the Trinity

by Frederick W. Baltz, WordAlone Board member

"Coming of Age: Exploring the Identity and Spirituality ofYoung Men" by David W. Anderson, Paul G. Hill and Roland D.Martinson (Augsburg Fortress, 2006), is a fascinating bookfor everyone concerned about young men and theirdisappearance from the church.

Based on 88 interviews with young men of varied backgroundsbetween their teens and mid-thirties, the book offersunderstanding and concrete, helpful suggestions to engage aspiritual problem that simply will not go away. The authorsstate that the church has been evolving into a feminizedorganization for a long time now, with a 30% male to 70%female ratio as the present state of affairs in someplaces.

Researchers have impressed upon us that it is extremelyhard to be a boy today. Bridget Murray of the APA MonitorOnline writes that schools are "antiboy" ("Boys to Men:Emotional Miseducation," July/August 1999, AmericanPsychological Association.) Boys are more active than girlsand get in trouble for not being as studious in school.Teachers often discipline boys more harshly than girls.Boys are given mixed messages about their feelings; theyare to be sensitive (without models), yet faulted if theyaren't tough. They are often victims of hurtful words.Girls' academic performance has increased while boys' hasdeclined. Boys are more likely to hurt or kill themselvesthan girls are.

Anderson, Hill and Martinson say for every girl in therapythere are four boys.

In the churches we continue to find people who seem to bemore interested in what they call "justice issues" than inreaching people with the good news of Jesus--what used tobe called saving souls. A few decades ago these peopledecided that it was urgent for us all to stop usingmasculine pronouns for God. None of this has ever seemednatural to broadcast or print media, but it became the lawin seminaries and elsewhere. The people who had the ideaalso had the power to make it happen. In fairness to them,some of their concern may have been evangelical; we weretold that some women could not deal with the concept of Godas Father in view of terrible things their own fathers haddone to them. One suspects, however, that their chiefreason was more ideological than theological.

Where was the research to support this pronoun revolutionthat became mandatory as things sometimes do in thechurches? From all I've been able to tell, it wasnon-existent. No one ever really found evidence thatbanishing all male pronouns when used of God would actuallybe a good thing, or that there really were lots of womenwho would approve. They did it anyway.

For all anyone knew, the new avoidance of masculinepronouns for God might have some bad effects such as…

1) sending one more message to boys and young men that thechurch isn't for them, and that they should run just assoon as they could break free from their parents'authority.

2) trying the patience of large numbers of men and women,leading them to the conclusion that pronoun fixation is atbest silly and at worst exasperating. (Were you ever in aplace where the usual Lutheran Book of Worship words became"God recalls God's promises and leads God's people forth injoy . . ."? I'm not making that up.)

3) contributing to the erosion of the Trinitarian languagethat belongs to the orthodox faith. After all, if "he" or"him" is verboten, it is only logical that Father and Sonmust go too.

4) becoming a dialect spoken nowhere else that is by itsnature exclusive and foreign, a dialect that even begins toresemble an obsessive/compulsive neurosis. How muchdifference is there between the person who will not step ona crack in the sidewalk and the person who automaticallyedits his or her speech of masculine pronouns for God? Isubmit: sometimes, not much.

Yet the use of this revised, ecclesio-speak language hasbeen strictly enforced. Do not expect to enter seminary ifyou don't plan to speak it. Do not expect to get very farin church organizations until you have become fluent in it.

Is there a kernel of truth in the point behind inclusivelanguage? Indeed there is, but the solution is not pronounpolice, and certainly not an assault on the classicaldefinition of the Trinity. The solution is first to affirmthe classical language of the Trinity as one certainboundary, and then to practice an inclusive language thatdoes not draw attention to itself. That probably means Godwill sometimes be called "he," and never called "she." Ofcourse we know that God is neither male nor female, but wealso know there are more important matters before us thanto justify being preoccupied with that one.

The attempts of church leaders to transform society byremoving masculine pronouns for God will probably ranksomewhere between the attempts to adopt the metric systemin the U.S.A., and trying to teach the world Esperanto. Thereasons are not compelling except to the few who continueto enforce it. The Emperor/Empress has no clothes.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

As long as the inane commentsa such as this tripe is posted as important to Lutheran Tradition, you show a continued lack of uynderstanding of what is of value and what is a first grade intellectual exercise."God Made Real" addresses what is at the heart of the failure of American churches and religious groups of all kinds that try to reach a disenfranchised American Public with Good News.The church's job is not to "transform society" but to become involved in the lives of people living in a real world far from the perceptions the churches have of what it's mission and message might be in the 21st Century..Read "God Made Real"; get it on Amazon.com. Read about it's content on "Godmadereal.com" for a preview. Nobody cares about the church's petty squablles. All you see about the relevance of the churches, anyway, can be found in the comics section of the newspaper.Shouting from your Castles at the other denominational Castles or postures of other religionists can't be heard in the real world - simply because you have not crossed the moat to engage in dialog with the human race and the pains of people living their lives on the fields beyond the castles. You're all like the Emperor. It's in the book.